Sunday, February 27, 2011

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

Well, it's a self-portrait. I think self-portraits are so much easier to take for some reason, and i feel much more creative making a self-portrait. It's just a picture of myself with christmas lights. I wanted to see how they would shine through the flower fabric of my shirt.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

1Q)Can you please tell us something about this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

I was hired by The Roots to document their week of practices and album listening parties for the release of Rising Down. Throughout each day, I would pull members to the side to take their portrait. This was taken on the roof of Legacy Recording Studios in Time Square in New York City.

Friday, February 18, 2011

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

This photo was taken in an abandoned trailer house I found exploring last autumn. It is a self-portrait. I do a lot of self-portrait work in the abandoned places I explore, mainly because I know exactly what I want to portray, and I'm usually alone or with someone who isn't comfortable modeling.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

This is one of my best friends named Kristen. The last photoshoot we had was an Edie Sedgwick photoshoot in June 2010 and we thought it was time for a new one. We found this dark looking alley way by accident and immediately knew it was a great place to take photos. I took this photo by setting up the ISO to match the light, which was an ISO 240, kept the Aperture at 1.8 and constantly changed up the shutter speed until I liked the amount of light that was portrayed in the photo. I chose Kristen to shoot because she is one of the most photogenic people I know and every photo of her comes out great.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

I think this was the second time I'd shot this model, whom I'd found on Model Mayhem. She was the first "real" model I ever shot; real in the sense that she knew how to move around and pose to make a good photo, and she was very expressive. It was definitely a turning point for me, shooting her. I realized the difference between taking a photo of someone pretty and taking a photo of someone who really knows how to model.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Today we have a really special guest- internationally published professional photographer ANITA ZVONAR, based in Toronto, Canada. She worked for magazines (People magazine, Readers Digest…), advertisements, record labels etc. She photographed musicians such as Paul McCartney, Gwen Stefani, Metallica, Kid Rock, Dandy Warhols, Dresden Dolls… and many more.

Here's her recipe how to become a successful professional portrait photographer: "Keep learning and practicing. The industry has a lot of competition, so try to be patient. It takes years to develop a career, and even then, there can be slow months or years depending on the economy. Develop a portrait style that represents you best… which takes time, but it happens."

Saturday, February 5, 2011

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot this person?

This photo was part of my 365 project a year ago. It is a self portrait as that was the basis of my 365. I remember taking it fairly late at night so I used 2 desk lamps to light myself. There was no real story behind it other than I had wanted to use the 3D glasses. The line across the mouth was something I added while making the image 3D. I needed something to add depth to the image so I added the line and a shadow in for the 3D version.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Today we have a really special guest- famous photographer Kris Krug from Vancouver. He shared a story of portrait, which is one of the pictures featured on the flickr homepage. Till today it has over 1,230,000 viewers. I asked him, how this awesome portrait changed his life…

"It has changed me more as a father than it has as a photographer. There are lots of difficult things you go through as the parent of special needs child. Yet to see his photo showcased prominently on something I care deeply about, such as Flickr, and to see him being praised by my friends and colleagues gives me a sense of pride for my son. Also his images has been used for campaigns and posters for Autism. This photo has produced some redemptive and endearing qualities since I posted it online."

1Q) Can you please tell us the story behind this portrait? How you took it and why you choose to shoot

this person?

This is a photo of my son Judah which was taken in a cemetery near my old house in Deep Cove in Vancouver, BC. One of the funnest things of being a young parent and a photographer is that I have beautiful subjects around me often. Judah has special needs and can’t really sit still so this photograph is a bit of a miracle. This particular photo captures a side of his personality that is hard to show in photographs. It captures his joy in his funny face and his haircut but some of his pain as well like his rosy red cheeks which are scars that are leftover from his feeding tube that had been attached to his cheeks and his bigger glasses.